Café photo poses that look unplanned

Sit where the light is

Pick the seat before you pick the pose. Sit so a window is to your side or slightly in front of you. Side light gives your face shape; a window directly behind you turns you into a shadow, and overhead spotlights put dark patches under your eyes.

If the only free table is under a downlight, turn your chair so you face the room instead of the wall. Light that bounces off the room is softer than light straight from the bulb.

What to do with the cup

The cup is the most useful prop you will ever be handed, and the most overused. Three things that work:

• Both hands around it, elbows on the table. Closes the shape and gives your arms a reason to be there.
• Lifted, not drinking. Hold it near your chin rather than at your mouth. Mid-sip rarely looks good.
• Down on the saucer, one finger still on the handle. Reads as a pause in a conversation.

What to avoid: holding the cup out towards the camera. It makes your arm look short and the cup look enormous.

Three places, three poses

At the table

Turn your chair about 30 degrees off the table instead of facing it square. Cross your legs away from the camera and lean one forearm on the table. The diagonal does the work.

By the window

Stand with your shoulder to the glass and look out, not at the lens. You get the light on one side of your face and a genuine reason not to be smiling at the camera.

In the doorway

Shot from inside as you come in, or from outside as you leave. Hand on the door, one foot forward, mid-step. This is the one that most reliably looks unplanned, because you really are walking.

The giveaway in a staged café photo is stillness. Keep something moving — a step, a turn, a hand setting the cup down.

If you are with someone

Do not both look at the camera. One looks at the other, or both look at something off to the side. Two people smiling straight down the lens across a table is a passport photo with pastries.

Leave a gap. Shoulders touching reads as warm; shoulders overlapping reads as crowded and hides one of you.

Before you tap

• Check what is directly behind your head. A tap, a sign or a plant growing out of your skull is the usual problem.
• Wipe the table. Crumbs and ring marks show up more than you expect.
• Shoot slightly above eye level for seated photos.
• Take the photo before the food arrives and again after. The second one is usually more relaxed.